One of New York job coach Robert Hellmann’s clients had an impressive résumé as a senior human resources manager. The client had logged 20 years of experience, managed 30 people and commanded a budget of $10 million. But he found himself at a point in his life where he didn’t want the pressure that comes with a senior position. Instead, he was shooting for a job that only required eight years of experience and few managerial responsibilities.

Hellmann’s advice: Trim the résumé and focus it on the No. 1 must-do of job search–showing how you can help the employer. “We took out the emphasis on managing and leading and on having overseen the $10 million budget,” explains Hellmann, who teaches career management courses at New York University. “Those points created a picture of someone who was not right for this job.” His client landed the position.

The Battle For Information Technology Jobs 2014

#Tech Jobs

In the town of Verona on the rural fringes of Madison, Wisc., there’s a Google GOOGL +1.54%-like campus that houses one of the country’s most rapidly growing tech companies, and one of the least well known. Founded in 1979, the medical software maker Epic has grown to employ 6,800 people, most of whom work at its 5.5 million-square-foot headquarters complex, which sprawls over 800 acres of what was farmland until the early 1990s.

Despite annual revenue estimated at $1.5 billion, the company is congenitally publicity shy, a characteristic associated with its founder and CEO, Judy Faulkner. Yet in its quiet, unassuming way, Epic is emblematic of the expansion of the information industry in the Madison area. Employment in the metropolitan area’s information sector is up 28% since 2008, among the fastest growth in the country over that period.

With the social media frenzy at a fever pitch, people may be excused for thinking that Silicon Valley is still the main engine for growth in the technology sector. But a close look at employment data over time shows that tech jobs are dispersing beyond the Valley and its much-celebrated urban annex of San Francisco.

We turned to Mark Schill, research director at Praxis Strategy Group, to analyze job creation trends in the nation’s 52 largest metropolitan areas from 2001 to 2013, a period that extends from the bust of the last tech expansion to the flowering of the current one. He looked at employment in the industries we normally associate with technology, such as software, engineering and computer programming services. He also analyzed the numbers of workers in other industries who are classified as being in STEM occupations (science, technology, engineering and mathematics-related jobs).

I learned in my job-search-today that I was in the final-round-of-candidates.How many times have you heard that and realized your job-search-has-stalled.Regardless of education or experience, you are certainly not alone.Many are finding confusing outcomes with the post-recession interviews and interview processes.

What are the questions I should ask myself or things I should evaluate at this point?

It is time for new ideas!

Am I focusing too much or not enough on my presentation?

Am I losing sight of my competition and what they are doing to get the offer?

Am I prepared for a structured behavior-based interview or unstructured interview?

Can I do more homework on the interviewers and/or the company?

What can I add to my resume presentation such as a power point document and/or a quantitative cover letter to elevate my value? Is my resume presentation and verbiage competitive with what others are using?

An interview conversation is not an everyday event and I could have habits I’m not aware of that need to be addressed. Consider spending time with a trained interviewer to enhance your skills and identify the unknown habits that show up during an interview process?

Are you bringing certain personality abilities or enhanced knowledge to the interview that is not expected? Do additional homework on the interviewers, the company, and even company cultural events that are considered positive by the employees.

What can I learn about the competition of the company that I am interviewing with?

Are you allowing the interviewers to connect with you and see your positive values and behaviors?

Do you struggle in conversation with certain topics in your career field? Be a subject matter expert in your area but do not be afraid to honestly communicate that certain topics are not your strong points?

Could it also be the interview process which many are unstructured and many employers are not using a professional interview methodology? An unstructured interview process depends more on opinions, agendas, and personal biases, feelings at the time, and historical results with past candidates. Either way, knowing yourself and your skills and being able to articulate both is the one thing you can control. Focus on the issues you can control and ask yourself the hard questions to evaluate even the things you think you are practiced and compete for the offer.

Here’s something most people didn’t have to worry about for the last half-decade: turning down a job offer.

But now, after years of layoffs and hiring freezes, plenty of corporations are starting to increase staffing levels again. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported there were 162,000 jobs added on public and private payrolls last month—and chances are, at least some of those newly employed people were offered more than one position and had to decline an offer.

Despite the 50-year anniversary of the Equal Pay Act this year, women continue to earn less than men across most job functions. In fact, according to new numbers released in February, the gender wage gap widened by slightly more than a percentage point in 2012—back to levels last seen in 2005. Across the economy, women now earn 81 cents for every dollar earned by men. Meanwhile, economists say wage growth has stagnated for all workers in the last decade, and particularly so for women. The hourly pay of young, female college graduates dropped 8.5% between 2000 and 2011, compared to 1.6% for men.

The past seven years has offered no sure thing with job interview results.The pre-recession hiring practices by hiring managers are gone out the window.The pre-recession salaries have also gone through an evolution.However the approach of the job hunter somewhat remained the same.

So what changed?

The new hiring norms:

The anxiety of the new norms yet to be discovered including too many business and economic unknowns by hiring authorities is contributing to uncertainty with the results and expectations of the hiring process.

Organizations routinely hire a limited number of employees and ask them to do many more tasks and have more overall knowledge than ever before.

Competing candidates:

Currently there are many candidate options of all types pursuing the same job.

This includes a group who in the past may have been in the near-retirement category but are still competing for jobs.

In the past a candidate who is very diverse, intelligent, talented, with above average communication skills would more than likely get an offer.

Currently employers have a much more narrowly focused approach to the hire. The focus could include wanting a subject matter expert in a certain industry, subject matter expert in certain processes, and a subject matter expert in a certain career path with little deviation that may be considered a hybrid career path.

Employers are still looking at “The Big Picture” when hiring, but that big picture at times has gotten smaller. In the past the big picture could include succession planning, building a management team, and the potential future direction of that employee. At times the big picture could be all about immediate needs of a certain group, their behaviors, lack of production, cost or loss, and who can fill many gaps and wear many hats.

How to address the hiring change?

A multiple tier job search approach:

A narrow or obvious approach that focuses on your last job and/or previous experience which could be a competitor or vendor of your last or current employer is one approach.

This approach would include submitting to a similar industry, job title, and job environment. You can then be considered the subject matter expert in several categories.

The vendor approach that focuses on vendors that provided your employer products or services or customers who purchased your employers products or services is always a target.

Consider the synergy approach that focuses on industries that have a connection to your career path such as different types of FDA regulated products, food, medical device, and/or pharmaceutical.

Give consideration to the out-of-the-box approach. With technology changes industries have hiring needs that requires them to hire different types of professionals than in the past. Do your homework with this approach.

What job search habits to change?

Your presentation – job search approach:

Know what resume formats are popular and being used by your competitors. If you do not know what your competition is doing then you will get left behind.

Do not allow the reader of your resume to assume anything such as who your employer is and what products or services your current or last employer provided.

Keep in mind there are two ways a resume will be seen: 1) the readable resume when you submit to a reader and 2) the searchable resume that you have posted in a database. Key search words are important.

Read many job descriptions and be aware of the industry standard power words for your career path.

Read other resumes in your industry and career path and make note of the power words they are using. Main stream industry power words will complement your readable and searchable resume results.

Carefully evaluate the job titles you are using. Some employers will label you with a creative job title not identified as an industry standard title and may distract or miss-lead the reader.

Submit a resume that speaks clearly to the details of the job description. Refrain from submitting a general resume that only identifies what you think are important accomplishments.

If you decide to submit a cover letter, consider providing quantitative information that may set you apart from other candidates. Let the reader of your cover letter see and compare your quantitative level of responsibility, so they can see alignment with their environment and save everyone time and effort.

About

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Together, we represent thousands of employment opportunities with new job search choices every day.
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